Multicampus Faculty Working Groups, 2018–19

The Multicampus Faculty Working Group Grant supports University of California faculty as they collaborate on innovative agendas in ways that contribute to the advancement of the working group topic specifically, and the humanities as a whole. Working groups may consist of 5 to 15 individuals (primarily UC faculty) who will collaborate over one academic year to address a clearly-defined and timely issue or the early stages of research on an emergent topic in the humanities. Throughout this year, members must engage in regular, ongoing virtual communication and meet in person at least two times.

Eligible Applicants

UC Ladder Rank Faculty

Maximum Award

$15,000

Application Opens

Monday, September 25, 2017

Application Deadlines

Friday, March 9, 2018

Award Announced(Expected)

May 2018

Funding Source

UCHRI/UCOP

Note: This award is eligible for up to $15,000 of supplemental graduate student funding to engage UC graduate students in substantive, research-oriented aspects of the grant (see below).

Final awards for all of our grants are contingent upon available funding. Funding must be spent in accordance with all applicable UC rules and regulations.

Applications must be submitted online via FastApps by 11:59 PM (Pacific time) on the deadline date.

Faculty organizers must be UC ladder rank faculty members who will be responsible for coordinating all aspects of the working group. Applicants are strongly encouraged to contact their respective campus representative on theUCHRI Advisory Committee for guidance in the application process.

Successful applications should clearly demonstrate how the theme and activities will contribute to research excellence in the humanities and include faculty participants from at least two UC campuses. Preference will be given to projects that engage three or more UC campuses and those that incorporate broader and more diverse publics in the expressive or interpretive work of the humanities.

Project Description

The project description should be a maximum of 2,000 words and include the following elements:

Problem Statement, including a description of the topic or issue that the working group seeks to address and its short- and long-term significance to the humanities.

A Budget Narrative (500 words max) that explains how estimates were determined

Budgets may cover travel and lodging expenses for workshop meetings of working group members as well as necessary group-related research expenses. Catered and group meals may not exceed 25% of the total budget. Grant funds do not cover alcoholic beverages.

UCHRI may also consider administrative costs (up to 15% of the total requested amount), provided justification is detailed in both the budget template and the budget narrative. Amounts should be determined in advance and in writing with the administrative unit (e.g., the faculty organizer’s department or campus humanities center). Campuses are prohibited from charging indirect costs on funding from the Office of the President.

Supplemental Graduate Student Funding

This award is eligible for up to $15,000 of Supplemental Graduate Student funding. This funding provides financial resources to create or augment support of research-driven, graduate student engagement in certain UCHRI-sponsored projects. Supplemental funding is intended to allow UC graduate students to participate significantly in large-scale research projects, to receive sustained mentorship from the professors involved in the project, and to help graduate students gain research and project management skills. Full integration means that faculty organizers and project members share the full scope of the project with graduate students, how it was conceived, and what its future will be. UC graduate students should be both collaborators and mentees and their participation in the project should be carefully considered and diligently managed.

UCHRI has historically funded integrated graduate student participation in many research-based projects. Graduate students have helped to set the research agenda, used data from research projects to write scholarly articles, engaged with community members around research issues, and shared pedagogical and methodological resources through studio-built websites and workshops. Already demonstrating success in graduate student integration, these provide models for the Supplemental Graduate Student Funding grant.

Funding Details

Integrated graduate student collaboration can take many forms, but grantees are especially encouraged to consider:

Co-authorship of published materials based on the project

Management or leadership of a smaller subset of the larger project (serving a particular community or dealing with a particular issue)

Creation and maintenance of a website/blog/podcast or other multi-modal, public-facing tool to bring attention to the project and share methods and findings

Participation in planning large seminars, workshops, and conferences and moderating or presenting on panels

Assisting in grant preparation if the participants decide to extend the project and seek additional funding from other sources

Because proposers must apply for supplemental graduate funding at the same time they apply for their primary project grant, there may be cause for revised scopes of work. UCHRI will accept these revisions provided they are necessary to running the project based upon UCHRI’s Advisory Committee decisions.

Required Documents

Faculty organizers will be responsible for coordinating and monitoring the progress of graduate student involvement. Applications for supplemental funding must be submitted concurrently with the primary UCHRI grant application via UCHRI’s FastApps system. Required documents include:

Scope and Narrative (1,000 words max, see details below)

Proposed Budget (see details below)

While there might be a need for some administrative tasks (organizing materials, helping to set up events, etc), successful applications will describe not just how graduate student labor is necessary to the project, but how working on the project will benefit a graduate student in terms of research and professionalization.

Narrative and Scope of Work

The narrative and scope of work should be a maximum of 1,000 words and include the following elements:

Narrative of Graduate Student Involvement, includingthe impact of the of the project on the students(s) research and professionalization andthe manner in which theywillparticipate in the scholarly work of the project and its deliverable.

Scope of Graduate Student Work, including a description of the day-to-day activities of the graduate student, any additional tasks they will conduct, and the activities or events in which the graduate student will participate.

List of Graduate Student Participants, including each student’s name, campus, department, brief biography, and relevance/contribution to the collaborative project and its stated objectives. If you have not confirmed potential graduate students, please detail thoroughly how you intend to identify interested participants.

Proposed Budget

The Supplemental Graduate Student Proposed budget is made up of two elements:

A Budget Narrative (500 words max) that explains how estimates were determined

Funds will support programmatic activities for up one year. No funds may be used to pay graduate tuition or fees, and graduate students must be paid equivalent as Graduate Student Researcher Step III or higher according to the UC salary scale. When determining appropriate remuneration, applicants should keep in mind that they are paying graduate students for their research expertise.

Proposed budgets should describe when graduate students will be working on the project, how many hours, and when payments will arrive. Funds will be transferred directly from UCHRI to the appropriate campus PI administrative unit, and payments can only be made between quarters or semesters (Winter Break, Spring Break, and Summer Break). Please be sure to indicate in your budget how funds will be disbursed as well as campus-by-campus expenditures (this is especially critical if the graduate student(s) do not share the same campus as the project PI).